Owen Henson, the first principal of Topeka West High School, had a rule. Administrators should teach classes — at least one or two.

That idea, said Bob Ramsey, who worked with Henson in the 1960s, applied to Henson himself, too.

“Most principals and administrators don’t teach,” said Ramsey, who was the equivalent of an assistant principal at Topeka West back then. “So it’s a unique and powerful way of keeping in touch both with the teachers and the students.”

Ramsey and other former colleagues, students and family members said this encapsulated the approach that the lifelong educator, who died earlier this month at age 87, brought to his profession. Henson saw students as the heart of any school, they said, and knowing them and their needs was high on his list of priorities. That held true even as he climbed the ranks of school and school district administration that might otherwise have isolated him from the classroom.

During his 57-year career in education, Henson did everything from teaching social studies to heading instruction and management services for Topeka Public Schools and serving as deputy superintendent and acting superintendent. He also taught at The University of Kansas and Emporia State.

“He was a visionary,” said Ned Nusbaum, a former Topeka High School principal and school board member, pointing to Henson’s work on opening Topeka West as an example.

To say that Topeka West wouldn’t be what it is today without Henson isn’t an overstatement. A year before the school opened in 1961, Henson was picked as its principal and set to work on the “schools within a school” concept that would shape its characteristic campus feel and multi-building design.

He believed the school district should find ways to combine the efficiency and other advantages of a large high school with the feel of a smaller setting. That led him to promote a system of school-like divisions within Topeka West, where students in each building would share a core team of teachers for some subjects.

“It was, in the ’60s, a novel education concept,” Nusbaum said. “The idea of 100 students having three teachers who really work with the heart of their academics would give them the advantage of a little school.”

Though Henson pursued innovation, colleagues said he sought to avoid imposing it in a top-down manner.

“He didn’t issue edicts to force change — he more or less inspired change,” said Ramsey, who also co-authored a book on the Topeka West design with Henson and fellow administrator Harold Hula, called “Schools within a School.”

Scott Henson, Owen Henson’s son, said he believes the years his father spent as Topeka West’s principal were among his most cherished memories as an educator.

“One of the things Dad was really proud of was the staff he assembled at Topeka West,” he said. “There was a wide variety of individuals that had different teaching styles and maybe even held different political views. There were teachers there that could relate to everyone.”

Opening Topeka West was a challenge because some students weren’t happy about moving from Topeka High, which had become increasingly crowded.

To address that, colleagues said, Owen Henson worked with the students on deciding details of the new school’s identity, including its mascot and yearbook.

Henson valued the decisions he could make as a building leader. In a collection of short stories he wrote about his experience at Topeka West, he recalls opening Topeka West’s classrooms to students with disabilities from The Capper Foundation, and describes instances where he adjusted graduation requirements to meet the needs of specific students.

“He just thought he could have more effect on kids,” Shirley Henson, his wife of 68 years, said of why he appreciated being a principal. “And on teachers, too. He loved it.”

Education is a passion for the Henson family. Shirley Henson taught in a one-room schoolhouse in Doniphan County, Scott Henson is principal of Sheldon Child Development Center and Scott’s sister, Chris Henson, is an English professor at Fresno State University.

After retiring from Topeka Unified School District 501 in 1987, Owen Henson remained an active volunteer in local schools, in addition to teaching at Emporia State until 2007.

Katherine Cooney, principal of McCarter Elementary, was one of his students at Emporia State. Cooney, who was studying school administration at the time, said Henson was compassionate and believed in the role of principals as problem-solvers for their students.

“He could amazingly remember the details of his students and their problems and how he counseled them,” Cooney said.

The takeaway message from that, she said, is that principals should never lose sight of what is best for the children attending their schools.

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Dr. Henson was an outstanding educator, educational visionary and a leader of quality all-encompassing educational goals. His contributions provided decades of inspired and successful educational practices. I would hope his legacy will serve as a model for administrators, principals and teachers to adopt his educational philosophy and mirror his example.